ASAP: Inspiring Young Minds at David Thompson Secondary School

Published: January 26, 2013

Association of South Asian Professionals (ASAP) invited professionals to share their career choices, a day in their work life and the importance of post-secondary education with grade 8 students at David Thompson Secondary school in Vancouver on January 17, 2013.Â I share with you the experience of the presenters and the class teacher below.

Dr. Kumar Shivdasani (Family Physician) said, â€śIt was anÂ honourÂ and a privilege to share my experience in choosing and elaborating on my career. Most students seemed attentive and engaged through our presentation. The students asked some intelligent and insightful questions interspersed with the occasional query regarding ice cream preference or type of car we drove.Â If I have another opportunity to speak, I’d like to bring in some props from work to help engage the students further.â€ť

Danvir Roopra (Chartered Accountant) said, â€śA wonderful and unique experience! It was fun and rewarding to share my experiences with the students and to be able to inspire them to see how they could shape their future and become the responsible adults they aspire to be. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute.â€ť

Kam Nat (Chartered Accountant) said, â€śThanks for the opportunity for us to share our experiences with the 8thÂ graders.Â I had no idea what to expect â€“ it was a lot of fun and I think we all had a good time.â€ť

Ronda Leung, the career planning class teacher said, â€śThe students loved the presentation. They loved how professionally dressed the presenters were. They loved how they shared their stories of choosing their profession. The presenters were so genuine and their stories were so enjoyable to hear. Specifically, the students learned that going to College before University is okay and failure do not mean the end. In addition, they really liked hearing Dr. Shivdasani say that all students should choose “whatever that makes me happy”. Thank you for sending the presenters. They were great!â€ť

ASAP is working with David Thompson Secondary school to provideÂ mentorship and career presentations to students. The schoolÂ is looking for professionals who can take a grade 11 or 12 student for work experience/job shadowing for 1 dayÂ up toÂ 1 week. If you are interested, please e-mail me your interest and your professional background and I will connect you to the teacher responsible for this program.

Amneet Aulakh volunteers with the Association of South Asian Professionals and is a mentorship committee co-chair. She works as a Clinical Pharmacist Specialist.Â Follow her on Twitter atÂ @mirrordoor.Â Â She can be reached by email atÂ amneet.aulakh@yahoo.com